Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Mainstream computer use is evolving from individually managed, stand-alone computing devices to connected devices that access software and/or data via a network connection. “Cloud computing” refers to a computing model in which computing resources may be accessed via a network connection, and resources available from the network may be referred to as “in the cloud”.
Behind a network connection, a “cloud” may often comprise professionally managed hardware and software. A data center operator may supply hardware infrastructure itself, e.g., racks and rows of servers within a physical structure and comprising processors, memory, cabling, and cooling systems. In some cases, one or more “Infrastructure as a Service” (IaaS) providers may supply an infrastructure layer using the data center operator's hardware. IaaS providers may supply, for example, servers (as physical machines and/or virtual machines), raw storage, firewalls, load balancers, and networks, from the IaaS provider's pool of such resources within a data center. Data center operators and IaaS providers both provide hardware infrastructure and are both referred to herein as “infrastructure providers”.
One or more “Platform as a Service” (PaaS) providers, or “platform providers”, may supply a platform layer on infrastructure provider hardware. Platform providers may supply, for example, computing platforms such as operating systems, programming language execution environments, databases, and web servers.
One or more platform customers including, e.g., businesses and/or individuals, may store software and data on a selected platform provider's platform. An example platform customer may comprise, e.g., a business engaging in ecommerce activities. Another example platform customer may comprise, e.g., a “Software as a Service” (SaaS) provider who supplies a software layer using a platform provider's platform. SaaS providers may supply, for example, application software that can be made available in a cloud to users.
Customers or entities accessing a platform customer's software/data “in the cloud” may be referred to as “cloud clients” or “users”. Therefore, in an example arrangement, infrastructure providers may sell cloud infrastructure to platform providers, platform providers may sell cloud platforms to platform customers, and platform customers may sell their goods/services to users accessing the cloud.